QueryTrackerBlog

Monday, December 28, 2009

I don't believe in New Year's Resolutions. You know why? Because they're good intentions you half-plan to break anyhow. I do, however, believe in setting achievable goals all year long, and in this post I'm going to teach you some tricks to help you keep and achieve your goals for 2010.

1. Write your goals down.

Putting your goals in writing not only makes them more concrete, it also tells your brain that you're more committed than you might be if you just made a mental promise.

Just make sure that you differentiate between wishes and goals. Goals are within your reach; wishes have more to do with luck. Compare it to playing the lottery. You can buy a ticket or tickets religiously and tell God or your teddy bear or whomever just how much you want and need that money, but in the end it's dumb luck whether your numbers are picked. In other words, you can't set a goal to win the lottery. You can only play and wish.

Likewise, you may hope to see your book go to auction and pull in an advance in the tens or even hundreds of thousands -- but there's little you can do to make that happen. Obviously you can write the best book possible, and you can even choose the agent with the most lucrative sales if you get multiple offers, but in the end it isn't your goal to go to auction and make a mint -- it's a wish.

So be sure that you're writing down goals.

2. Be specific.

It's harder to reach vague goals, so be specific. Sure, you want to get published, but by whom? In what format? There are a lot of ways to get published these days. Rather than saying "I want to get published," try something like "I'd like to see my work published with a major print sf/f/h publisher" or "I'd like my short story collection to be e-published by a small literary press" or "I'd like to try self publishing, and my goal is to sell ___ copies by January 1, 2011."

Another example: Rather than saying, "I want to write more," choose something more specific: "I want to spend at least an hour a day on my writing."

Now that you've written down specific goals, it's time to pick one. Which is most important to you? That's the one you need to focus on. Keep your list with the other goals on it -- you can go back to it after you accomplish your first goal.

I know, you want to multi-task, but you're far more likely to meet a goal if you're focusing on it, rather than juggling several.

3. Break your target goal down into smaller steps.

Arguably the biggest mistake people make in trying to reach goals is focusing on the big goal without creating a series of smaller, more manageable mini-goals to help them along the way. Being able to break a large goal down into specific steps (which may also be broken down, depending on how large they are) is crucial.

So let's say you want to spend an hour a day writing. You may well spend an hour writing every day for the first two or three days, or -- if you're stubborn -- a week or so. But unless you already spend quite a bit of time writing each day, you'll never be able to ramp up to a whole hour a day from nothing. If you try, you're likely to get a goal-violation effect. In other words, after you've failed once or twice, you proverbially throw your hands in the air and decide you can't do it, so you give up.

Instead, start with a specific mini-goal you know you can achieve. For example, "I will write for 15 minutes at least twice a week over my morning coffee." Caveat: start smaller than you think you need to. If you set the goal too high -- say, 15 minutes every day -- you're likely to fail and get the goal-violation effect, and then it's all over.

4. Be realistic -- and use common sense!

If you want to get an agent, write out all the steps not only of getting the agent, but also of preparing your manuscript and query. Too many people rush out to find an agent before their work is really ready. Build in plenty of mini-goals in which you get lots of feedback from other writers -- and listen to what they have to say. Then you can consider sending your material out.

5. Take it slow.

Once you accomplish a mini-goal, take some time to make it a habit rather than rushing on to the next mini-goal. If you're able to write for 15 minutes at least twice a week over coffee but you feel like you just barely pulled it off, the very last thing you should do is move up to your next mini-goal of writing for 15 minutes at least four times a week. Instead, take some time making writing over your coffee a habit. Only once the task is regularly coming easily -- perhaps you even find yourself looking forward to the two days -- should you move on to your next mini-goal.

Likewise, give yourself at least six months to a year to find an agent. Longer -- think two to five years -- if you have yet to have your work critiqued by objective strangers, if you need to build a platform, or if you need to get some short stories published to establish yourself.

I know you're impatient, but remember, it's better to get there a little slowly than not to get there at all!

6. Reassess at least once a week and make changes as necessary.

If you get to the end of week 2 and you're really struggling with your mini-goal -- say, you just weren't able to get yourself to write for 15 minutes twice a week -- don't beat yourself up. Just troubleshoot and adapt. Make the mini-goal 5 minutes twice a week. Then work your way up to 15 minutes.

Plan to make adjustments in your goals and mini-goals as you see what works and what doesn't. Rather than seeing adjustments as failures, see them as what they are: effective problem-solving.

7. Have a FAIL-prevention plan.

Know ahead of time what you're going to do if things don't work out the way you want them to. Maybe your goal was to secure an agent, but everybody and their brother has rejected your material. Now what?

Now try to realistically figure out where the problem is. If nobody even requested your partial, your writing probably needs work. If you didn't get many requests, your writing may be good, but your query may need work. If you got lots of partial and full requests but no offers of representation, your writing is probably good, but your story may need work. Again, tap objective crit-mates for feedback -- don't harangue agents. It's not their job to tell you what's wrong with your writing, only to decide whether they can sell it.

When you hit a setback, back up a little bit and figure out how you can take a new approach. Face any problems with a creative problem-solving attitude, and you'll find that there's always another approach if things don't work out the way you'd hoped!

If you stick to the tips above, though, I bet you'll find that your goals are much more manageable and achievable than they were before!

Wednesday, December 23, 2009

I'm usually a pretty disciplined person, but if anything can disrupt my writing, it's the holidays.

Summer? No problem. Birthdays, anniversaries--all short term distractions. The Christmas season is another story. From Thanksgiving to January 2nd, it seems like I slip further behind until I get my momentum back after the new year begins.

I realize this post is a bit of a departure from our norm. Usually, we try to give out information in our QT blog posts, but today, I'd like to be on the receiving end. Help me out here.

How do you balance the distractions of the holidays and your writing? Do you get as far behind as I do, or do you have a schedule or technique for being productive as a writer as well as a "real" person.

Please leave your tips in the comments, or if you don't want to give out your trade secrets publicly, feel free to email me at marylindsey@QueryTracker.net.

Tuesday, December 22, 2009

This Christmas Eve and Christmas, QueryTracker will be unavailable while I move QT to a faster and more reliable server. The holidays were chosen as the conversion date so as to inconvenience the least number of members as possible. It is hoped that you will all be so busy enjoying family and fun that you won't even notice the change.

What will the change be? Except for less down time and faster pages, you shouldn't notice any change at all.

Monday, December 21, 2009

We all know that online networking is essential for writers to succeed in this modern age. So what do writers do? We haunt Facebook, Twitter, and blogs. I found myself wishing for a central listing site of WRITERS, a simple way to connect with all their sites from one single page. I wanted something that looked like this:

And then I went to the guy who could make my wish come true.

Patrick McDonald owns QueryTracker.net which, as you know, is full of writers. And so I asked: "Hey Pat, want to make my networking dreams come true?" And bless him, he consented! (The photo above shows the results!)

Update your profile (under the My Stuff tab, click Edit Profile, then click Contact Info) to include links to your Facebook*, Twitter, blog and website. (Make sure you choose to make the links visible to everyone!)

Next, while still in your profile, select Genres I Write and Genres I Read, as this will help you connect with writers/readers with similar tastes. (Hint: The more genres you choose, the more people you will connect with!)

Now for the networking:

Hover over the Members tab.

Click on Search by Similar Likes and you are on your way!!!

Now, spread the word! More people knowing = more connections for you!

Of special note:

There is a way to keep track of who you have already connected with. When you view a QT member's links, click on Send A Penpal Request. It will change to indicate that you have connected with them.

For tips on speed networking check out Elana's post on speed blogging.

*Having a hard time learning your Facebook address? It's simple to find. While signed into Facebook, click on the PROFILE tab. Use the address that appears in your browser's window.

This is a brand new feature, so let me know if you have any questions or problems, or can think of a way to improve it. (Let's make all our networking dreams come true!) So leave a comment in this post or drop me a line: suzettesaxton@querytracker.net.

Wednesday, December 16, 2009

From time to time we like to interview you, our readers, to find out what you want to read about on the QueryTracker Blog!

What: We want to interview you!Where: We'll post our questions below, and you can answer in the comments section or via email.When: We'll be watching today's post December16 through December 25th, so you can answer the questions anytime over the next week! (You can also answer more than once, if you feel like it.)

Question 1: Tell us a little bit about yourself!

What do you like to write? Fiction? Nonfiction? Genre? Etc.?

What do you like to read?

Question 2:What do you want to see more of? What do you want to see less of?

What have we covered that you'd like to see us talk more about? Please be as specific as you can.

What areas haven't we covered that you want us to address? Again, specifics are great!

Question 3:If you could interview anybody in publishing, whether that be an author, an agent, or someone else, who would that be? Why? (Yes, we're asking you to name names here.)

What would you ask?

Question 4:What areas of QueryTracker do you use most/find the most helpful? (e.g. the main site/QueryTracker.net, the Forum, the Blog, QT's Twitter feed) What, if anything, would you add or change about that/those area/s of QT?

Monday, December 14, 2009

I don't mean it's time for parties and sleigh rides and stuff. No, I mean it's the season to get your query ready.

In this post, I'm not going to talk about how to get your query ready. (I've already done that here. And there's a wealth of info on that particular topic.) No, this post is about the "best time" to query.

I've seen this talked about a lot in forums and on blogs. I've heard people say you shouldn't query during the summer. And you can't query during the holidays. And you shouldn't query at the beginning of the year because every writer has made a New Year's resolution to send out queries.

Reading all that can make an aspiring author throw their hands up and proclaim, "When is the best time to query then??"

Well, here's my personal opinion. (And I queried over the summer. In fact, many requests came in the summer.)

Q: When to query?

A: When your 1. manuscript2. query letter3. synopsis and 4. nerves are ready. Regardless of the season. Because agents are always looking for good books. Always. They're always going to be busy with this, that and the other. So don't stress it.

Query when your material is the best you can make it. And trust that the industry will be ready when you are.

A few good reads on this topic. Nathan Bransford posted this last year. And it's still true today.

Several new agents and publishers have been added to the QT Database recently. Check out the box labeled "New and Updated Listings" on the front page of the main QueryTracker.Net site and view their profiles for website links and genres they represent.

Tips, News & Other Interesting Info from Around the 'Net

On the fun side, today is the (unofficial, official) Agent Appreciation Day. QT members Lisa and Laura have compiled a list of participating agented authors and the agents who represent them.

Wednesday, December 9, 2009

Middle grade author Lindsay Eland is one of those amazing moms of four young children who still finds time to write. She's represented by Rebecca Sherman of Writer's House. Her book, Scones and Sensibility, published by Egmont and edited by Elizabeth Law, will be released on December 22nd.

Stay tuned for details at the end of this interview of how you can win a free copy of the book!

So Lindsay, tell us about your journey to agenthood.

My journey to agenthood had all the ups and downs, the cries of despair and the hopeful joys of a daytime drama…or at least in my memory that’s how it looks.

I went into my first query with hopeful abandon thinking that surely this first agent would think that my beloved manuscript was brilliant and they would be knocked to the floor in awe. Obviously after the first through ten informal rejections, my hopeful abandon turned into something that resembled more of a pleaful begging as I slid my envelope and SASE into the mailbox. And though at times I thought that maybe I should just give up, I knew beyond any doubt that I couldn’t. That this—this writing stories thing—was something I was born for and meant for and that I just had to keep trying. That of course happened with the help of chocolate, and my amazing critique group.

So I did keep trying.

And one lonely query to a brilliant agent at an amazing Agency turned into a partial…which turned into a full…which turned into a revision letter…which turned into a request to see more of my writing…which turned into a contract!

And then your agent hooked you up with a publisher – what was that process like?

It was very exciting and completely nerve-wrecking. And to back-track for a second, the first manuscript my agent sent out was NOT the manuscript in that very first query letter. That manuscript is something I’m still revising right now!

Okay, so anyway, my agent began to send one of my manuscripts out into the great wide world of publishing. There it met with one rejection after another until I had racked up around fifteen very nice and complimentary rejections and one “I’d like to see revisions if she’s willing” responses. Of course, in the meantime I continued to write, write, and write some more because writer’s can’t stop writing and it did help me get my mind off of the gathering rejection emails filling my in-box. About three months after the first submission went out, I submitted another manuscript called Scones and Sensibility to my agent, who in her brilliant agent fashion, sent me a long, much-needed revision letter. I revised and sent it back. Then Brilliant Agent called me one day about the manuscript on submission. “I think this first novel will sell, but I’m not sure if it’s going to be your debut novel. I think we should pull it and start submitting Scones and Sensibility.” Of course I said yes, cause obviously Brilliant Agent knows what she’s doing.

And she did.

After I revised again, she sent it out. Two to three weeks later it sold at auction, and I got a two-book deal. All-in-all it was around eight months from signing with my agent to Scones selling to my amazing editor!

Can you tell us about your book and what inspired you to write it?

Scones and Sensibility is about matchmaking gone horribly and hilariously wrong.

And I was inspired to write this novel from my own love of LM Montgomery and Jane Austen, as well as the fact that I wanted to create a story with a main character who wasn’t a tom boy like a lot of middle grade mc’s are (and understand that I’m not down-playing these at all, cause I write them too and love those types of characters…but really, not all girls are like that, right?). I was also inspired my daughter’s best friend who is completely dramatic, overly romantic, and absolutely hilarious…which is very much who Polly Madassa is.

What was your own craziest love match?

Hmmm…all the guys I dated throughout Jr. High, High School, and college were pretty normal, great guys. But Billy Ross, one of my first boyfriends ever, was probably the funniest match cause we were in seventh grade and I was literally a whole two-heads taller than him…it made dancing together very interesting.

Your characters have been described as “the funniest, most unique batch of lulus you’d ever want to meet.” Have you ever met anyone that came right out of your book?

Yes! Audrey, my daughter’s best friend that I mentioned above, is based loosely on her! I also come from an extremely hilarious family with so many stories I could fill three notebooks full of material.

And then I did write a picture book that won third place in the Writer’s Digest Writing Competition back in 2006 about an old lady using her purse as a weapon…that was based on my beloved crit mate’s off-the-cuff comment one time…yes, Lisa Amowitz…that was you ;).

So yes, I have met people that came right out of my books because unique, wacky, lulus are all around us if we as writers just stop and listen and observe them. :)

Your book is available for pre-order on Amazon.com (I've ordered my copy!) and will be released right before the holidays. Are you nervous or in a state of perpetual bliss?

Both at the same time. I can’t wait for it to be released, but it’s also terrifying because it will be out in the world for anybody to read or love or hate or praise or critique. It’s a very scary feeling.

What is the hardest thing about being a writer?

I would say the waiting, waiting, waiting and the mindset of “good enough” that plagues all of us yearning for affirmation and publication (ooo, I rhymed!). Anyway, I really feel no more confident in my abilities as a writer now that I am agented and published as I did when I wasn’t. It’s a constant battle and the hardest part of writing.

How on EARTH do you manage to be so productive with four little kids?

I have my schedule and routine and I’m adamant about keeping it for my sanity as well as my kids. :) Every day, from 1-4 or so, they must occupy themselves in some way (preferably not setting fire to the house or coloring on the walls).

How do you always manage to stay so cheerful?

I’m extremely thankful. And for me that’s what being happy really is…looking around and realizing despite all the sadness and brokenness in the world and life in general, there are still so many things to look at and wonder at and be thankful for. And you can’t help but smile at that.

Would you like to share something with aspiring authors everywhere?

Whatever you do don’t give up. Cry, pout, burn your mss, use rejection letters as a dart board, eat chocolate until you are nice and round and plump, even become a telemarketer for a while…but do not, I repeat, do not give up. It’s only those who give up that always, without a doubt, fail.

Tease us! We would love to see a short excerpt from your book.

The mailman, Mr. Snookers, was delivering the mail, much to Jack the Nipper's protest, and Miss Wiskerton seemed to be in quite a frenzy of excitement. At the same time she attempted to calm the ferocious beast, her cheeks flushed, and she kept trying to fluff up her hair, which sat in sausagelike rolls on her head....I quickened my step to her small gate as Mr. Snookers ran past me at quite an astonishing speed when one considers his girth. Jack the Nipper was subdued as much as a dog of his disposition could be, and Miss Wiskerton appeared to look down the street at the retreated mailman with a hint of remorse.Miss Wiskerton was indeed lonely. Lonely for love.

Now for how to win your free copy. Head on over to Lisa Amowitz's blog where she's hosting the SUPER-FABBY Scones and Sensibilities Challenge. And thank you, Lisa, for introducing me to Lindsay and for coming up with the most creative of the above questions. :)

Monday, December 7, 2009

But if you're not one of the cool Kindle Kids and you're not getting any "Nook"ie, that doesn't mean you have to feel left out. There's a free program called ereader that you can download in a variety of formats, depending on the device you plan to read on. I've got the PC and palm pilot versions, myself. Those of you with trendier technology can download the Iphone or Blackberry versions if that's your thing.

Now, the files for ereader are .pdb files. You can download commercial .pdb files, of course (including lots of free literary classics), but if you want to create your own ebooks, you'll have to convert the manuscripts to the ereader format.This is easier than you might think.

I love having a copy of my manuscript handy on my palm pilot, and I love reading my crit partners' manuscripts on the go this way. Ebooks also display nicely on the PC (with ereader) when I'm only looking to read, as opposed to adding comments. (I like to read the manuscripts I'm critting straight through once for big-picture feel, then I go back in Word with track changes and all to make my suggestions). ;)

A long time ago, I celebrated my uber-geekiness when I discovered how to use Palm Markup Language to create my own ebooks with formatting, table of contents, etc. PML tags are similar to html code, so if you're comfortable with html, you should be able to pick up PML quickly.

Once you have ereader installed on your computer, handheld, phone, or whatever, you'll be able to read your converted manuscript on your chosen device. The files are tiny, too, so you can store a lot of them even on devices without much memory.

Here's my ebook for The Edge of Memory displaying on my PC. I used PML code (by placing a \x tag before and after each chapter title in my manuscript) to add a clickable Table of Contents.

I mean, seriously... how cool is that? You can make virtual bookmarks, change the font size, even set the text to autoscroll like movie credits.

Don't get me wrong, I love a flesh-and-blood book as much as the next bibliophile. But this is pretty durned cool, too.

Susan Hawk has joined the The Bent agency. She's looking for young adult and middle grade books; nonfiction and literary fiction, as well as genre fiction like fantasy, science fiction, historical fiction, and mystery.

Kathleen Ortiz of Lowenstein Associates is looking for chick lit and YA.

Justine Wenger of the Emma Sweeney Agency is looking for literary fiction and short story collections.

New QT Features!

There are some exciting new features in QueryTracker. For example, you can now copy a query list from one project to another (definitely handy for folks who are querying more than one project in the same genre). You can also cross reference projects -- if you've queried a particular agent before, you'll get a note showing which projects you queried with and what the results were.

Wednesday, December 2, 2009

Today we're taking a jaunt across the fence to see if the grass is really greener on the other side of the fence. The agented fence. So many of us are working hard to perfect that query letter, research agents and hoping to find that one industry believer who can get our book into the hands of an editor. But what really goes on after you sign with an agent?

Well, Lisa and Laura Roecker (hitherto known as L&L) are here to give us a glimpse. These sisters-turned-authors signed with Catherine Drayton of Inkwell Management earlier this year and were kind enough to give me a few minutes to answer some questions. They run a killer blog and you can check out their website too. I'm ElanaJ (aka EJ. You're disappointed it's not Oprah, aren't you? Dude, that's on my other blog.) and I'm totally going to hit them with my best shot.

EJ: Okay, you’ve signed with an agent. Many of us might be asking: “Is the grass really greener on the other side?” So…is it?

L&L: Oh yes, it’s just gorgeous over here. We’re kidding…kind of. We’ve had the most amazing experience with Catherine. She’s incredibly talented, hardworking and communicative. We feel like we’re her only clients and yet she works with tons of authors, many who are NYT Bestsellers. We feel incredibly lucky that she saw potential in the two of us and has invested so much time and energy into our work.

EJ: Let’s start with revisions. Did you need to complete revisions for your agent before going on submission? If so, how intensive were they? How long did they take? Were you able to ask Catherine for feedback and advice along the way?

L&L: When Catherine offered representation she mentioned that she’d want us to do some revisions before going out on submission. About a month after signing with her we met her in NYC and were lucky enough to get our revision notes live. I will never forget going to Starbucks afterwards and looking at each other, like “Oh, crap. That’s a lot of work.”

But Catherine has this knack for pointing out strengths and weaknesses in your manuscript and really forcing you to make it the very best it can possibly be. She reminded us that you only debut once and it needs to be spot on. So, the revision ended up taking us about a month, but it was an intense month.

We definitely had to ask for advice in regards to the title. We came up with list after list and Catherine would provide feedback. It all comes down to the fact that we suck at thinking of titles. But we all loved THE HAUNTING OF PEMBERLY BROWN, so that’s something.

EJ: Okay, the day comes. Book is revised. Agent-approved. Then what? Give us the low-down on what happens next on your end. On Catherine’s end.

L&L: After Catherine read our revised manuscript she told us she wanted to put it out on submission the following week. We did a little happy dance and then immediately started to freak out. While Catherine was busy writing up her pitch and figuring out who we should submit to, we wrote up bios, took an author pic, created an author website and continued freaking out.

By the next week Catherine sent us the list of the lucky editors and we immediately went into cyberstalking mode. It was sort of amazing to read about all of these uber talented editors who were going to be reading and (hopefully) talking about our work. It was also terrifying.

Catherine kept in touch in regards to who was reading, if/when she’d nudged them, if/when we were going to acquisitions, etc. Every time an email would pop up in our inbox or Catherine’s number would pop up on our cell phones, we’d about pass out. But it was fun. In a terrifying, exhilarating kind of way.

EJ: How did you endure the wait? The rejections? How did having an agent help with both of those?

L&L: We certainly had our fair share of rejections, but Catherine never ever let us give up on THE HAUNTING OF PEMBERLY BROWN. We honestly can’t imagine going through the submissions process without an agent. Whether it was an encouraging e-mail or the constant updates on the status of our submissions, Catherine kept us informed and (somewhat) sane throughout the entire process.

EJ: Did you start a new project while your first was on submission? If so, were you able to bounce ideas off Catherine? How helpful/instrumental was she in what you decided to write next?

L&L: Catherine was extremely open to us bouncing ideas off of her. About a month into the submissions process, the waiting was driving us crazy, so we told Catherine we’d like to start working on something new. She told us to put a few pitches together, so we sent her some of our best ideas. She was on vacation at the time, and while we were waiting for her response we got a completely new idea for a project. By the time she came back, we were already 15,000 words into SHE’S LEAVING HOME. We just fell in love with the characters and the concept. So basically, Catherine didn’t have much of a choice, but I think we’re all really happy we decided to write what we did!

Whew, sounds like it's a thrilling ride, no matter which leg of the publishing journey you're on! Thanks so much for sharing with us. Oh! And Lisa and Laura recently sold their book to Sourcebooks, with a publication date of Spring 2011. Further proof that hard work pays off, no matter which field you find yourself grazing in.